Thursday, April 28, 2011

After making a Blazer shirt for my brother (that's highly inappropriate and I just can't bring myself to post it here, even though I love it), St. Patrick's Day shirts for me and Amazing Boyfriend, and my "Big Girl" Panties, I'm sure that all of you are sick of my projects that involved fabric paint. But there's just so much that I can do with it! I keep coming up with projects I can use it on.

So instead of posting separate posts of all the fabric paint projects I've been working on I figured I'd show them all off in one picture filled post. That way if you really are interested you can check it all out, and if you're only sorta interested you can just look at the pretty pictures instead of reading the whole thing, and if you're not interested at all then you're probably not reading this anyway.

The first project is fabric painted onesies for my unborn nephew, Jackson. I was supposed to give these to his Mom at a baby shower in the end of March but that was when one of my nieces gave me the plague and I stayed home from the baby shower, not wanting to spread my germs. But since my Mom is also having a baby shower for the proud parents, I already have a present ready.

These are the 3 month onesies.

These are the 6 month onesies.

I love this little shirt. I tried to make the lizard look like it was climbing out of the little pocket. The next project that I have is a couple of shirts that I made for my niece, Gabby, for her 16th birthday. I'm pretty stoked with the way that these came out, although the birdcage stencil was a giant paint in the @$$ and I'm pretty sure I'll never be using that design again. If it wasn't totally uncool to have matching shirts with your Aunt I'd totally copy these designs for myself, but I think they'll look better on her anyway.

(do you see the detail on the birdcage? Took me an hour to iron on the stencil!)

Since I was already making a shirts for my niece, I decided to paint a couple for myself as well.

My brother David and I are going to game 6 of the Playoff series between the Portland Trailblazers and Dallas Mavericks. Of course, I had to make shirts for both of us to wear to the game. I apologize in advance for the wording on my brother's shirt, since it's pretty inappropriate, although we did censor it so we wouldn't get thrown out of the game. But I LOVE my shirt! It was the first time I used the velveteen fabric paint and I think both of the shirts came out awesome!!

I already made these for my youngest niece, Kirra, for her birthday, but I couldn't resist making her a couple of T-shirts as well. Especially since the "no more monkeys jumpin' on the bed" saying is kind of a joke with her. (She LOVES jumping on the bed, much to her Uncle David's dismay, as that's her favorite way to wake him up in the morning.) This was my first attempt at using the Fashion Glitter and Glitter Bond, which I used on the monkeys. I think it worked out pretty well, but Amazing Boyfriend and I like the cupcake shirt better.

I also reused one of the designs of Kirra's shirt on a onesie for my best friend, Gracie, who recently found out she's having a baby. I've already been informed that this baby will be my niece/nephew and the baby will never even know otherwise. Yeah, I'm cool with that. Anyway, Gracie had a crazy dream one night, which I'll spare you the details, but needless to say there was a monkey involved, which has already turned into a nickname for baby since we currently don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl. (Although Gracie and I are on Team Girl!)

There, I know that was a lot of projects for one post, but it wasn't so bad now, was it? (Yup, Amazing Boyfriend is rolling his eyes at me as I type this)

Okay, I'll post one picture of my brother's highly inappropriate shirt that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Just be warned that it's not very nice. Last change to look away!

Yes, that IS a glitter tiara! He actually did wear this to a Blazers vs. Lakers game in February, and got lots of compliments. Obviously, the hatred for the Lakers runs pretty deep. I still find it funny that I got him to wear a shirt that has glitter on it.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I guess, technically, my version of this would be what do you MAKE for the woman who has everything?

I am having the hardest time coming up with an idea of what to make for my Mom for Mother's Day!

Eek, it's coming up quick, I know!

My Mom is one of my favorite people in the whole world! She's an oncology nurse, who also runs a support group once a month. She's always active in events like the Relay for Life and Race for a Cure. She makes dinner for EVERYONE (serious, she won't turn anyone away) every Wednesday night, sometimes it's as few as 5 people and sometimes it's as many as 25, no joke! She has season tickets to the Portland Trailblazers and seems to have more fun letting other people go to the games instead of herself (although she has a really fun time going to the games too.) She has been such a wonderful resource with all the questions that Amazing Boyfriend and I have had in regards to his cancer and chemotherapy and even comes over on the off weeks and changes his pick-line dressing so we don't have to drive to Portland every week, which is so helpful.

You would think since I know my Mom pretty well that I wouldn't have such a hard time figuring out something to make for her for Mother's Day.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

My Dad's birthday is actually the beginning of January. (Yup, I did say January.) I'm not gonna tell you how old he is, especially since my Dad really doesn't act his age (or anywhere close to it.) Unfortunately, in January is when Amazing Boyfriend started having health problems and life got in the way so I never got around to making this project for my Dad until now.

I made Dad his very own...

Etched Beer Mugs!!!

Wanna see how I did it?

Supplies

glass pieces to etch

etching cream

contact paper or vinyl

paint brush

craft cutting machine

This isn't my first project that I've made using etching cream. I used etching cream quite a bit around the holidays on different items for a few birthdays and Christmas gifts. I got pretty good at using it. But I've had several of my friends ask me if using etching cream is difficult. So I figured with this project that I'd show all my steps. Because honestly, the truth is that if I can do it, it really can't be that hard.

To get started, you need to decide what you're design is going to be. I'm one of those lucky people that own a silhouette machine (please don't hate me), but you can still do this project if you don't have a craft cutting machine. You just have to cut out your design on contact paper with a craft knife .

After you have the design cut out onto your contract paper or vinyl, you need to apply your stencil to your glass piece. Make sure that your piece is really clean, but don't use an ammonia based glass cleaner because it reacts with the etching cream. I used vinegar and it worked perfectly.

Once you have your stencil in place, it's time to apply your etching cream. I always wear gloves when I'm working with etching cream, although sometimes I think I'm just being overly cautious. I just use a soft bristle brush to apply a good layer of the cream to the stencil. I learned the hard way that if you use a brush that's too firm it can leave streaks with the etching cream.

Safety First!!!

The instructions on the bottle of etching cream says that you should leave the cream on for 5 minutes, but I feel like it you get better results if you leave it on a little longer. I leave it on for about 20 minutes before washing it off.

Once you wash the etching cream off, remove the stencil and dry your glass piece off. When the glass piece is wet it's hard to see how your design turned out but once it's dry it'll show up nicely. Now you're left with an awesome permanent design!

So cool, right?

Seriously, the look so much cooler in person, I promise!

(It's really hard to take a picture of etched glass, especially when there is a design on both sides of a glass and I have to take pictures at night.)

My beer mugs say Garage Use Only on one side, since my Dad's garage is a regular place where people congregate and drink. On the other side of each mug I put a toast, which is something that happens in the garage after someone has had a few. The toast idea was actually Amazing Boyfriend's idea, but I loved it. The toasts I used are:

Toast: to Family and Friends

Toast: Good Times

Toast: to Rainy Days

Toast: Just Because

Amazing Boyfriend came up with a few others after I'd already made stencils and gotten the mugs prepped for etching, so maybe I'll use them on another project. But I think my Dad's gonna love these. I know I do.